Search This Blog

Bubble-looking For HK Luxury Condos

No matter how you cut, slice or dice the price HK$63,000 psf is a doozy. Yes, that is about $8,076 psf or RM27,400 psf. Much of the buying over the past few months have been by Chinese from the mainland. Article from The Standard.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Prices for luxury properties in Hong Kong are now firmly at a sky-high level, a fact confirmed yesterday as a developer slapped a price of more than HK$63,000 per square foot on a premium apartment in Mid-Levels.

That will make it the highest-priced penthouse in Asia - and it is not even on top of the building.

The top-of-the-pile tab was revealed as Henderson Land Development (0012) released the first price list for its residential project 39 Conduit Road yesterday. On it was the HK$357.7 million, 5,636-sq-ft duplex. That means a square- foot record of HK$63,473.

Another duplex, 5,131 sq ft and also on the 66th floor of the 88-story building, is listed at HK$311.4 million, or HK$60,696 psf.

In June last year, Sun Hung Kai Properties (0016) sold a 5,497-sq-ft penthouse at The Arch, atop Kowloon MTR Station for HK$41,100 psf - a record for Asia.

The pattern of soaring prices is setting off alarms as well as expressions of amazement.

Lui Hon-kwong, associate professor of marketing and international business at Lingnan University, warned of the danger of a price bubble in the property market, which is drawing huge inflows of cash from super-rich mainlanders.

"A price bubble is determined by the mainland government's policy direction," he said. "If it does not support people in investments, our property market will lose ground and prices will plunge."

Still, Eddie Hui Chi-man of Polytechnic University's department of building and real estate notes that the sale of expensive homes by Henderson is at the upper extremes of the property market and should not have a bearing on the mass market.

"Some super-rich people are chasing luxury homes like others collect paintings and wine because they are rare," Hui said.

"The property market is recovering ahead of the real economy, however, and people can afford mortgage payments."

Besides the two premium duplex homes, Henderson also set prices for 18 "regular" homes in the block - sized at 2,808 and 3,284 sq ft - from HK$73.4 million to HK$137.9 million. The developer's sales general manager, Thomas Lam Tat-man, said the company will set about securing sales as early as this afternoon.

Customers have shown interest in 20 to 30 apartments, Lam said. They are negotiating up to HK$70,000 psf for the most expensive unit.

The project has a total of 66 homes sized from 2,800 to about 7,600 sq ft, with two penthouses on the 88th floor still to be priced. Henderson has suggested it could be seeking a staggering HK$100,000 psf for the loftiest pair.

The firm intends to sell 40 percent of the homes this year, which would bring in about HK$4 billion. Lam predicts a 10 percent increase in prices for homes sold later.

Midland Realty regional sales director Jimmy Lee said the prices asked by Henderson will not deter buyers. "Housing supply in Mid-Levels is very limited and investors have long been waiting for new units."

Popular posts from this blog

REPOST: Its been more than two years since I posted on my sifu. This is probably the most significant posting I had done thus far that does not involve business or politics. My circle of close friends and business colleagues have benefited significantly from his treatment.

My Master, Dr. Law Chin Han (from my iPhone)

Where shall I start? OK, just based on real life experiences of those who are close to me. The entire Tong family (Bukit Kiara Properties) absolutely swear that he is the master of masters when it comes to acupuncture (and dentistry as well). To me, you can probably find many great dentists, but to find a real Master in acupuncture, thats a whole different ballgame.

I am not big aficionado of Chinese medicine or acupuncture initially. I guess you have to go through the whole shebang to appreciate the real life changing effects from a master.

My business partner and very close friend went to him after 15 years of persistent gout problem, he will get his heavy attacks at least…

PUC has tried to reinvent itself following the untimely passing of its founder last year. His younger brother, who was highly successful in his own right, was running Pictureworks in a number of countries in Asia.

The Shares Price Rise & Possible Catalysts

Share price has broken its all time high comfortably. The rise has been steady and not at all volatile, accompanied by steady volume, which would indicate longer term investors and some funds already accumulating nd not selling back to the market.

Potential Catalyst #1

The just launched Presto app. Tried it and went to the briefing. Its a game changer for PUC for sure. They have already indicated that the e-wallet will be launched only in 1Q2018. Now what is Presto, why Presto. Its very much like Lazada or eBay or Alibaba. Lazada is a platform for retailers to sell, full stop. eBay is more for the personal one man operations. Alibaba is more for wholesalers and distributors.

I would like to extend my prediction that the bull run for Bursa stocks should continue to run well till the end of the year. What we are seeing for the past 3 weeks was a general lull where volume suddenly shrunk but the general trend is still intact. My reasons for saying so:

a) the overall equity markets globally will be supported by a benign recovery complemented by a timid approach to raising rates by most central banks

b) thanks to a drastic bear run for most commodities, and to a lesser extent some oil & gas players, the undertone for "cost of materials" have been weak and has pr…